Attempts are being made to rewrite the Minsk accords, to preach to the OSCE what they should do and to impose the things standing far outside the mission’s mandate on it, Vitaly Churkin says

Vitaly Churkin

UNITED NATIONS, February 27. /TASS/. American and British representatives at the UN Security Council are striving to rewrite Mink accords and force the monitoring mission of the European security organization OSCE in Ukraine into performing the functions that stand far outside its scope of powers, Russian ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin told Russian reporters upon the end of a meeting of the UN Security Council.

The meeting was held behind closed doors and the head of the OSCE special monitoring mission, Erturgul Apakan, and the OSCE envoy to the Contact Group for peace settlement in Ukraine, Heidi Tagliavini made a report to the Council members on the current situation and the pullout of armaments from the zone of conflict in war-torn eastern Ukraine.

"We expected the things happening now," Churkin said. "We were not especially enthusiastic about the meeting that was held today because attempts are being made to rewrite the Minsk accords, to preach to the OSCE what they should do and to impose the things standing far outside the mission’s mandate on it.

Demands in that vein were aired by the US and Britain, he said.

Churkin said OSCE representatives were told in the course of the session they should assure control over the entire length of the Russian-Ukrainian border.

"There are the Minsk accords that contain an interpretation of the problem of the state border and there’s an appropriate mandate for it, and so what’s the sense of raising the issue at the Security Council?" Churkin said. "This is done simply to exert some psychological impact and, quite possibly, to divert attention."

OSCE representatives were also asked what resources they needed for efficacious work.

"But it isn’t the Security Council that should decide on the resources because that’s the prerogative of the OSCE Permanent Council," Churkin said. "That’s total mess. Instead of pressing forward with the demand to stop warring and implement the Minsk accords and fulfill the OSCE mandate, they’re trying to conjure up something vague." When TASS asked him whether participants in the meeting had voiced any constructive proposals, Churkin said: "Calls for peace and for fulfilling the Minsk agreements were heard, too."

"Along with it, there were provocative escapades that surely aimed to sidetrack the implementation of the Complex of Measures envisioned by the Minsk accords," he said. "They were present in big quantities."

The Security Council meeting behind closed doors was preceded by a briefing where Tagliavini and Alakan said the pro-government troops and self-defense units of the self-proclaimed unrecognized Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics had been taking steps in line with their commitments under the agreements reached in Minsk on February 12.

Both officials pointed out a considerable reduction of combat operations in Donbas and the continuing pullout of heavy armaments from the areas of adjoining the line of contact.